well to refresh and allay, - but fully to quench and satisfy their thirst; -minding or (as the Apostle says) relishing earthly things,

making them the end and sum total of their desires and wishes, and, in one word, loving this world-just as they are commanded to love GOD; - that is, with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind and strength. - But this is not the strangest part of this paradox. - A man shall not only lean and rest upon the world with his whole stress, but, in many instances, shall live notoriously bad and vicious; when he is reproved, he shall seem convinced; — when he is observed, he shall be ashamed;

- when he pursues his sin, he will do it in the dark; - and when he has done it, shall even be dissatisfied with himself: yet still, this shall produce no alteration in his conduct. Tell him he shall one day die; or bring the event still nearer, and show, that, according to the course of nature, he cannot possibly live many years, — he will sigh, perhaps, and tell you he is convinced of that, as much as reason and experience can proceed and urge to him,

make him :

that after death comes judgment, and that he

will certainly there be dealt with by a just GOD according to his actions; - he will thank GOD and tell you, with the same he is thoroughly convinced of and as he believes, - no doubt, he

he is no deist, grave face, that too;

trembles too:- and yet after all, with all this conviction upon his mind, you will see him still persevere in the same course, and commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution, as if he knew no argument against it. These notices of things, however terrible and true, pass through his understanding as an eagle through the air, that leaves no path behind.

So that, upon the whole, instead of abounding with occasions to set us seriously on thinking, the world might dispense with many more calls of this kind; - and were they seven times as many as they are, considering what insufficient use we make of those we have,

all, I fear, would be little enough to bring these things to our remembrance as often, and engage us to lay them to our hearts with that affectionate concern, which the weight and interest of them requires at our hands. - Sooner or later, the most inconsiderate of us all shall find, with Solomon, that to do this effectually, is the whole duty of man.

And I cannot conclude this discourse upon his words better than with a short and earnest exhortation, that the solemnity of this season,

and the meditations to which it is devoted, may lead you up to the true knowledge and practice of the same point, of fearing GOD and keeping his commandments, -and convince you, as it did him, of the indispensable necessity of making that the business of a man's life, which is the chief end of his being, — the external happiness and salvation of his soul.

Which may GOD grant, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

ASA:

SERMON XL

A THANKSGIVING SERMON

And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets. And all the men of Judah rejoiced at the oath. -2 CHRONICLES XV. 14.

T will be necessary to give a particular ac

IT

count of what was the occasion, as well as the nature, of the oath which the men of Judah sware unto the Lord; which will explain not only the reasons why it became a matter of so much joy to them, but likewise admit of an application suitable to the purposes of this solemn assembly.

Abijah, and Asa his son, were successive kings of Judah. The first came to the crown at the close of a long, and, in the end, a very unsuccessful war, which had gradually wasted the strength and riches of his kingdom.

He was a prince endowed with the talents which the emergencies of his country required, and seemed born to make Judah a victorious, as well as a happy people. The conduct

and great success of his arms against Jeroboam, had well established the first; - but his kingdom, which had been so many years the seat of war, had been so wasted and bewildered, that his reign, good as it was, was too short to accomplish the latter. He died, and left the work unfinished for his son. - Asa succeeded, in the room of Abijah his father, with the truest notions of religion and government that could be fetched either from reason or experience. -— His reason told him, that GOD should be worshipped in simplicity and singleness of heart; -therefore he took away the altars of the strange gods, and broke down their images. His experience told him, that the most successful wars, instead of invigorating, more generally drained away the vitals of government, —and, at the best, ended but in a brighter and more ostentatious kind of poverty and desolation: therefore he laid aside his sword, and studied the arts of ruling Judah with peace. Conscience would not suffer Asa to sacrifice his subjects to private views of ambition, and wisdom forbade he should suffer them to offer up themselves to the pretence of public ones; -since enlargement of empire, by the destruction of its people (the natural and only